Google Releases Chrome.

Chronogical Blog Entries:

Date: Wed, 03 Sep 2008 23:33:41 +1000

Google has announced the release of a new browser called Chrome.
The announcement has created a huge amount of interest and quite a large
number of downloads. Blogs everywhere are awash with chatter about this new
development. Already the chrome webagent has captured a phenomenal 2% of
webagent share.

On this occasion, I agree with the general babble from the Tech jouno
mainstream. This is a big move by Google. And it will be a challenge to
Microsoft. Whether or not it puts a dent in Internet Explorer remains to be
seen. From my own experience, Explorer on Vista is a dog. A putrid, lame and
unbelievably slow dog. Any new browser, that has been tuned for the
applications that get used most often on the Internet, may entice some sheep
to stray from the boggy Microsoft pastures and commence browsing on the
Chrome plated open range. The promise of a quick and reliable
web-browser and a new Java engine should be enough. Of course, Chrome
will be faster. Seriously, you would have to put a lot of effort into making
anything as slow as Explorer on Vista. Still, the public seem to be still
buying Vista, so Chrome might even end up taking market share from
Firefox rather than IE.

The comic book,
which explains this is well written and may, in part, account for the rapid
uptake of Chrome (that and the Google brand name).

A new Open Source browser, that can (and will) be optimised for web based
applications (such as those that Google is now offering), will be a
significant new entry in the Browser market. I expect to see Chromium
browsers for mobile devices before too long. This will be especially important
for mobile devices using Google's Android. It will offer a powerful platform
that can integrate so many features into an Open Source mobile package. Watch
for this! The release of Chrome could be the most significant software
development of the year.

Unfortunately there is no Chrome download for Linux. The fact that
there is no download available for Linux and Mac has attracted some criticism.
Most of the criticism is unjustified however. It makes perfect sense to get
releases ready and working for Windows first. Since the entire project is open
source, there are several people working on the Linux and Mac releases. And
these will be ready soon.